Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood

My father raised me and my 8 brothers and sisters on the teachings of Stephen Covey.

I admire Covey’s work and highly recommend his books and leadership training programs.

A concept Covey teaches is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

He says, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”.

While this concept teaches very important communication skills related to listening to the intent of others, there’s also a connection I see to the steps to learning the American accent.

Within my online training program I teach the 6 steps to learning the American accent.

You’ll notice that steps 2, 3, & 4 are all about seeking to understand.

As you seek to understand the rules of the American accent (the sounds and rhythm), the correct mouth placement, and you develop your listening skills through a step by step method, you are then in a stronger position to be understood clearly.

Seek first to understand — then to be understood.

Keep up the great work and please let us know if there’s more we can do to help!